Effects in Printed Commercials:
The Moment of Exposure and the Significance-effect

Torkild Thellefsen, Christian Andersen, Bent Sørensen

Torkild@stofanet.dk; Christian@hum.aau.dk; bent@hum.aau.dk

© This paper is not for reproduction without permission of the author.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to investigate the emotional effects commercials cause on the interpreting mind in the so-called moment of exposure (MoE). Furthermore, we investigate what happens in the aftermath of the MoE, the after rationalisation process, which we name the Significance-effect (SiE), this is the process where the emotional level caused by the MoE becomes related to memory and thereby becomes related to meaning. Theoretically, the article primarily draws on concepts from the American polymath Charles Sanders Peirce, the French semiologician Roland Barthes and we also make use of resent results in neuropsychological research by i.e. Joseph Ledoux and Antonio Damasio.